Bedrest & Worship

The day of my due date: Thursday, September 6, 2012
Louis and I agreed that if Alivia wasn't born that day, then she needed to wait until after September 9 (which was our church's annual Lakeside Service)...also the day 4 baptisms were scheduled, including Abigail's.

Thursday came and went and Friday morning I was still pregnant.  So Louis put me on complete bedrest Friday and Saturday. I often thought that bedrest would be awesome...just to be able to rest all the time. The first day was! How often does a mom of 4 get to just lay in bed all day and not be sick? Being sick ruins the privilege!!

The next day, Saturday, Louis took all four with him to get groceries. He's such a great dad! This day was a long day and I started realizing bedrest longer than a couple of days would really be difficult. Just hearing voices throughout the house and not tending to needs, helping Louis out, and doing my routine of 1-2 loads of laundry daily was making me anxious to get up and do something. The contractions I had been having the week before came to a hault.  I had 2 contractions total on Friday and 3 total on Saturday. "Good", Louis said. 

We made it to Sunday, and the service was awesome!!!  It was so worth resting over the weekend to make it to that day!  I was so thankful to Louis for commanding giving me time to rest. 

Here's Louis playing his guitar for Worship the first time.  he did SO well, as did Pam, our pianist.  The duo was uplifting!

Such a precious, precious moment.

 

 

The Worship Service and time of fellowship was so special.  The Lord takes care of everything for us.  He had something big planned and he cared for me in seeing that HIS plans were carried out.  We serve a mighty God who always looks out for us and ALWAYS plans BIGGER and BETTER than we ever could. 

Monday, Louis was back to himself, eager to hear about contractions and wanting things to progress!!

The delegates

2 weeks before my due date:

• Louis programmed his cell phone number into the cordless phone at home.
•  He delegated responsibilities to Abigail, Anna, and Aliza for the time I either went into labor or my water broke. 
• Abigail was in charge of calling Daddy to tell him to get home.
• Anna was in charge of getting me to the blue van to wait.
• Aliza was in charge of collecting things from the house I asked for.

For 3 weeks he rehearsed the drill with the girls before he left the house. Part of me is sad that the girls didn't get to fulfill their jobs. They really took pride in having their delegated responsibilities.

Long overdue

You've heard it said, "I'm long overdue for a haircut." Or "The van's long overdue for an oil change". And by the way, both of these statements are true around here most of the time!

Well, I'm long overdue for a baby. Not really long overdue, just overdue.  Doctor had me due on Sept. 6.  So I'm a little past that. 

I've gotten some unique advice to induce labor and thought I'd share:

1. Eat some spicy food. 

With Abigail, this worked. 

We had Mexican food last week and in the pico de gallo on my plate were sliced green chillies (my mouth fired up 3 times).  It didn't induce labor.  It gave me severe heartburn though.

Louis picked me up from CBS and had a special treat waiting for me- fried pickles from Tennessee BBQ.  If I've craved much this pregnancy, it's been for those.  Well, if you've had theirs, you know they can light up your mouth too.  I ate nearly all of them myself. 

Today I saw where you could get a Blooming Onion for free at Outback.  It was tempting to drive there and eat one to see if that would stir things up.  Something about the hour drive didn't appeal to me though!

2. Get down on your hands and knees and scrub your floors.

I got down on my hands and knees in the driveway and scrubbed the brake dust from the van wheels.  I'm glad no one saw me sprawled out in the driveway.

I got down and cleaned behind the toilet today.  It was work that needed to be done and when I went to stand up, I kind of got dizzy and lost my balance.  I don't recommend that when you're 40+ weeks pregnant.

3. Ride the lawnmower around.

Seeing as how this is kind of embarrassing to just ride around on the mower and not be mowing, I grabbed Adalyn to sit with me so it looked like I was giving her a ride.  Ya know, in case the neighbors saw me.  Well, when your belly is big and you have to hold on to a 2-year old with one hand, it's kind of tricky maneuvering curves on a hillside.   

4. Just pig out.

Well, this was fun.  I heaped food on my plate at the lunch we had at church yesterday then got full before I could finish because our 2-year old kept raiding the food table for more food.  She really needs to be in a high chair wherever she goes so she's not constantly on the go, and I can finish a meal. 

5. Do power walks. 

We went last night to local park with this huge track that goes around the whole park (including ball fields and basketball courts.  Abigail and I walked it and by the end, I was pretty worn out. 

Louis has had me walking to the mailbox and back several times.  I actually carried two pieces of mail down and dropped them in the mailbox individually so that if anyone saw me, they'd assume I was taking mail to the mailbox and not think I was walking to induce labor. 

6. Climb stairs.

I probably make 20 trips a day up the steps here at the house because our laundry room, home school room, and family room are downstairs.  I feel the most out of breath when I'm about 5 steps away from the top.  Kind of like you feel when you're in labor.  But then I remind myself, I'm climbing steps.

7.  A good scare

Louis has tried this several times.  The. funny. guy. 

Tonight, as I was typing this, he fell asleep stretched out at the foot of the bed because our night owl FINALLY fell asleep on his side of the bed. Well, I finished my jug of water then put an ice cube in my mouth and chomped.  My recuperating-from-back-surgery-husband yelled out in a fast wakefulness and fell out of bed onto the floor.  I'm totally in huge freak-out mode thinking he has disrupted his whole back in such a terrible way.  So I jerk up out of bed to check on him (even turning on the lamp and risking waking up our night owl who we plan to put to bed in a few minutes).  He rolls over and says, "Did that make you have a contraction?"  That about sent me into outer space...better yet- him to outer space!  It was pretty funny though and we both laughed pretty hard. 

However, about a week back, I was getting the van loaded. I started the van and air conditioning.  Then I asked Anna to track down her sisters in the yard and have them get in the van.  I was about 3 steps behind them, gathering a couple things, the diaper bag, etc. when I had this terrible thought of Adalyn getting in the driver's seat while the van was running and driving through the garage door.  Then I'd run out in front of it to stop it (like some superwoman) and being ran over.  Well, call it intuition, the next thing I hear is the van rev up.  I RUN out of the house to see Adalyn standing in front of the steering wheel and Aliza in the driver's seat.  They said they were trying to get into the van.  For the next 30 minutes following that, I had 3 contractions.  So it's possible scare tactics do induce labor.


8. Eat Eggplant Parmesan

Considering I probably gagged myself into sickness as a child eating eggplant, I think it's possible that the same could be said if I tried that now.  Although I will say that my tastes have changed considerably since I've grown up.  So maybe a trip to Olive Garden is in order. 

9. Get an hour long foot massage

I can totally go for this.  Even if it didn't induce labor, it'd be time well spent! 

The things I haven't tried:
Riding some bumpy hills on a 4-wheeler, going horseback riding, and going tubing out on the lake. All of these suggestions came from church friends who graciously offered the experiences to me.

All of these tips seem WAY better than pitocin.  I'm all for hanging out without the Pitocin stuff and just going in naturally! 

Dream results in some action!

About 3 weeks ago, I had this dream that I went in to labor and we weren't ready. So I made myself a "To-Do" list of about 5 things:

1. Clean out the deep freezer, then stock it with easy meals for when Alivia arrives.
2. Pack the diaper bag and our hospital bag.
3. Have groceries available here for our girls and their caretakers while we are in the hospital.
4. Clean the van.
5. Do some deep cleaning of the house and get all the laundry caught up.

• The first thing we did, was got the diaper bag all packed. There's nothing more fun than washing clothing for the one that's not here yet. It stays clean!!! Then we packed our hospital bag. I originally packed a summer dress to come home in.  then I changed my mind,  have you ever tried to nurse while wearing a dress?  It's been about 7 months since I've had to think about that.   So we bought me a pair of drawstring capris because I couldn't pack up a pair of maternity pants and not have use of them for so long. Both bags, and the car seat have been in Louis' van for 2 weeks.
• We then hit the grocery store. Twice. One night for dry goods as we passed through Albany to Somerset to go to Bob Evans to eat. We always forget they are an hour ahead of us. We pulled in the parking lot 15 minutes before they closed at 9 (their time) and you should have seen the looks I got from the employees when I walked in to ask their closing time. We drove all that way for Bob Evans, and by goodness, we were gonna eat at Bob Evans. Louis' comment made me change my mind, and so we headed to find another place. I was sure Frisch's wouldn't spit in our food because they closed an hour later.
• The next day, I had to pick up donuts, and so I hit Save-A-Lot in Albany again for all the cold stuff. It helped my legs to break up the shopping like that. And pyschologically, it felt like I spent less. My receipt total was $77 for the first night and $140 the next day. Not bad. (I would have felt bad if I saw the total at $217.00). Hehe.
• As we unloaded all the groceries, I had to kind of rearrange cabinets to accomodate everything.  I made special food baskets for the girls that has been off limits until Alivia is born.  For a few days they were saying, "I can't wait til Alivia is born so I can eat that food".  It's fun kid food like ravioli, spaghetti-os, fruit snacks, pudding cups, and pop-tarts.  Not stuff we generally buy, but stuff that would be easy for someone to get out for them.  I have no worries, that Abigail and Anna will go for that as soon as we head to the hospital. 
• Then I had a cook day (that lasted 2 days because I ran out of energy).  Abigail and Anna helped me clean out both freezers.
• After spending two days in the kitchen, I turned around to notice our house was turned upside down.  So when Monday rolled around we spent about 3 hours cleaning.  I made out a game board for them that had tasks written out above circles that led to a Game Over box at the bottom.  Once they completed their tasks, they could color in the circles that were below the written tasks.  They loved that game.  Then when they all got to the Game Over, they got to eat popsicles outside and play for 30 minutes,  Then I painted all their nails after their baths.  At the end of the day, we had our clean house again.
• A few days later, we had a "Sure" Day (where I just said "sure" to the girls' requests.  One of their requests was to wash the van in their bathing suits.  Cool...it'd check off part of my list. 



Below the microwave are the 2 red food baskets.   Our older 3 girls are very proud of them and super protective of them.  Adalyn discovered them Thursday and helped herself to some of the fruit snacks.  You've never seen more upset sisters! 

So it took about a week to check off the 5 things.  But it felt good.  I felt like THEN we could go in to the hospital and have a baby because all of that was done!  The fridge and freezer were stocked, the bags and carseat loaded, the house was clean and the laundry was caught up.  These days, I feel like we're gonna eat through our stock and by the time we finally have this girl, the house will be a wreck and the laundry will be piled high. 

Cook Day

When we were preparing for the birth of Adalyn, I had a mega cook day.  My mom and I prepared a bunch of meals for the freezer.  Then later on I tried the 30-meals-in-a-day mega cook day.  That was fun...long hours, but a time-saver during the week for SURE!!!
2 Fridays ago, I had a mega cook day.  Then Saturday I finished it. By the end of 8 hours, I had 16 meals ready to go in the freezer.  Ahh, accomplishment.  I then talked to my sister-in-law who said you can freeze lasagna noodles uncooked by adding water to the sauce.  That would have saved me 2 hours in the prep!!!  I can't wait to try that next time. 

These are individual helpings of sloppy joes.  For the times when the girls just want cereal for lunch or pb&js and Louis and I want something heavier.  I got the idea from a Quick Cooking Magazine a few years back.  You line a muffin pan with wax paper or plastic wrap.  Then use 1/2 measuring cup of prepared sloppy joe filling to fill each section of the muffin pan.  Freeze for 30 minutes.  Then plop out the servings and put them in freezer bags or containers.  When you want to eat them, defrost them in the microwave in a bowl, then heat.

These are hot dog buns-turned garlic bread.  Cheap!  I like to make our garlic bread like this and fry them buttered side down in a skillet.  So I thought I'd try making them ahead and freezing them like you can buy in the store. 

Our other meals included 4 pans of lasagna, many bowls of chili, vegetable soup, prepared taco fillings, prepared enchilada fillings, fried sausage to go in gravy, and several servings of spaghetti sauce.  It's taken me 12 years to be able to make buttermilk biscuits from scratch and I really want to try to do freezer biscuits but haven't tried out a recipe yet.  There are so many with varying ingredients. If you have a tried and true, by all means, please share!! 

 

 

 

Being productive

Last night:

• I pulled off the off-white blanket from our bed and washed it.
• I disassembled and vacuumed out a picture frame.  
• I pulled Adalyn out of the tub and she went poop on the potty chair!!! 

Because...

• Adalyn spilled her grape juice on the blanket.
• Trying to get her basketball, Anna stepped on a picture frame out in the garage (doesn't everyone store those on the floor when you're going through a box of frames?).
• I noticed a floater in the tub among the bath toy Adalyn was playing with.  If she'd had her whole basket of toys in there, I probably wouldn't have noticed the thing.  Love draining a tub, cleaning the whole thing out, then putting your kiddo back in the tub for the rest of her bath.